Flexible cell met or exceeded customer‘s expectations for quality and production. Fixture design capable of accommodating most parts. System achieves or beats required 60-second cycle time for all parts (except large rebar parts that require vertical welding and multiple passes).
Project Challenges
- Provide a standard, compact cell with the flexibility to weld multiple parts (including plates, angle sections, and rebar) from several different part number groups.
- Number of welds varies, but most parts require 4-5 welds, each approximately 76.2 mm – 101.6 mm (3" - 4") long.
- Meet cycle time of approximately 60 seconds for most parts (excluding some of the large rebar parts that require multiple weld passes).
- Eliminate the need for outside contract welding.
- Improve the quality of the welding operation.
Motoman Robotics Solution
- Motoman Robotics provided a modified ArcWorld 1000 system, including:
- Motoman UP6 robot with XRC 2001 controller.
- Robot base riser.
- Miller weld package, including Auto Deltaweld 452 450-amp constant voltage power source, interface, four-roll wire feeder, feed rolls, cables, and touch-sense function.
- Weld dress-out package.
- Tweco torch package (air-cooled) with safety mount, mounting adapter, and torch alignment fixture.
- Motoman pneumatic wire cutter with accessory stand.
- Motoman MR-300 heavy-duty 180-degree indexing positioner with 300-kg (660-lb.) capacity per side and 4-second indexing time.
- Operator station with two thumbwheel switches for program selection on positioner Side A and Side B, and auto/manual jog for positioner.
- Custom fixturing package.
- Cell guarding package that meets ANSI/RIA R15.06-1999 safety standard, including wire fencing with one access gate and positive break safety switch, arc flash protection curtains, and a light curtain at the positioner load/unload station.
- Common mounting platform for robot, positioner, and safety fencing.
- Common equipment base for XRC and welding power supply.
Fixtures/Tooling Details
Motoman Robotics provided a custom fixture for each part group, plus a duplicate fixture for one group. Changeout details on the various fixtures allow welding of individual part numbers within a part group. Manual clamping is used with all fixtures. One fixture mounts on each side of the positioner. Fixture base plates are common and manually interchangeable. Based on the length of the rebar pieces, many assemblies are welded in an “inclined” configuration; one fixture is oriented in a vertical configuration.
Ref: ACS-046